About the Book
Thirty-six interdisciplinary essays analyze the mutual relationship between historical epidemics and the built environment.
Epidemic illnesses—not only a product of biology, but also social and cultural phenomena—are as old as cities themselves. The outbreak of COVID-19 in late 2019 brought the effects of epidemic illness on urban life into sharp focus, exposing the vulnerabilities of the societies it ravages as much as the bodies it infects. How might insights from the outbreak and responses to previous urban epidemics inform our understanding of the current world? With these questions in mind, Epidemic Urbanism gathers scholarship from a range of disciplines—including history, public health, sociology, anthropology, and medicine—to present historical case studies from across the globe, each demonstrating how cities are not just the primary place of exposure and quarantine, but also the site and instrument of intervention. They also demonstrate how epidemic illnesses, and responses to them, exploit and amplify social inequality in the communities they touch.
Illustrated with more than 150 historical images, the essays illuminate the profound, complex ways epidemics have shaped the world around us and convey this information in a way that meaningfully engages a public readership.
Table of Contents:
Preface – Mohammad Gharipour and Caitlin DeClercq
Prologue: Pandemics and urban health – Sandro Galea
PART 1: URBAN GOVERNANCE: POLITICS AND MANAGEMENT
1. Plague in Sibiu and the first quarantine plan in Central Europe, 1510 – Katalin Szende and Ottó Gecser
2. Mughal governance, mobility, and responses to the plague in Agra, India, 1618–19 – Mehreen Chida-Razvi
3. Urban governance, economic intervention, and the plague in Bristol, England, 1665–66 – Andrew Wells
4. Smallpox and the specter of Mexican citizenship, 1826 – Farren Yero
5. Complacency, confusion, and the mismanagement of cholera in York, England, 1832 – Ann-Marie Akehurst
6. Cholera, the Roman aqueduct, and urban renewal in Naples, Italy, 1860–1914 – Sofia Greaves
7. The contested governance of border railways and the plague of Northeast China, 1910–11 – Yongming Chen and Yishen Chen
8. Print, politics, and the smallpox epidemic in Terre Haute, USA, 1902–3 – Allen Shotwell
9. Colonialism, racism, and the government response to bubonic plague in Nairobi, Kenya, 1895–1910 – Catherine Odari
PART 2: URBAN LIFE: CULTURE AND SOCIETY
10. Women, social solidarities, and the plague in 17th-century Newcastle, England – Rachel Clamp
11. The Jewish ghetto as a space of quarantine in Prague, 1713 – Joshua Teplitsky
12. Hygiene and urban life in the 'District of Death' in 19th-century Istanbul – Fezanur Karaağaçlıoğlu
13. Religious rituals and cholera in the shrine cities of 19th-century Iran – Fuchsia Hart
14. Social life, illness, and the marketplace in Kumasi, Ghana, from the 20th century to the present – George Osei and Shobana Shankar
15. The city as field hospital and the influenza epidemic in Seattle, USA, 1918–19 – Louisa Iarocci
16. Rural migrants, smallpox, and civic surgery in 20th-century Baghdad, Iraq – Huma Gupta
17. House, social Life, and smallpox in Kathmandu, Nepal, 1963 – Susan Heydon
18. Meningitis, shared environments, and inequality in São Paulo, Brazil, 1971–75 – Daniela Sandler
PART 3: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE: PERMANENCE AND CHANGE
19. Epidemics and the royal control of public health in Lisbon, Portugal, 1480–95 – Danielle Abdon
20. The Guadalquivir River and plague in Seville, Spain, in the 16th century – Kristy Wilson Bowers
21. Social inequity and hospital infrastructure in the City of Puebla, Mexico, 1737 – Juan Luis Burke
22. Colonial infrastructure, ecology, and epidemics in Dhaka, 1858–1947 – Mohammad Hossain
23. South American health conventions, social stratification, and the Ilha Grande Lazaretto in Brazil, 1886 – Niuxa Dias Drago, Ana Paula Polizzo, and Fernando Delgado
24. Plague, displacement, and ecological disruption in Bombay, India, 1896 – Emily Webster
25. French urbanism, Vietnamese resistance, and the plague in Hanoi, Vietnam, 1885–1910 – Michael Vann
26. Building a community on Leprosy Island in the Philippines, 1898–1941 – Mary Anne Alabanza Akers
27. Shifting health paradigms and infrastructure in Australia in the 20th century – Karen Daws and Julie Willis
PART 4: URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING: INTERVENTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
28. Urban design, social epidemiology, and the bubonic plague of Palermo, Italy, 1575–76 – Carlo Trombino
29. Cholera and housing reform in Victorian London, England, 1850–1900 – Irina Davidovici
30. Public health, urban development, and cholera in Tokyo, Japan, 1877–95 – Susan L. Burns
31. The Hong Kong plague and public parks in the British settlements of Shanghai and Tianjin, China, 1894 – Yichi Zhang
32. Rebuilding the British Seamen’s Hospital at Smyrna in the wake of smallpox and cholera epidemics, 1892 – Işılay Tiarnagh Sheridan Gün and Erdem Erten
33. Spatial change and the cholera epidemic in Manila, the Philippines, 1902–4 – Ian Morley
34. Plague, housing, and battles over segregation in colonial Dakar, Senegal, 1914 – Gregory Valdespino
35. Urban transformation and public health policies in post-influenza Lagos, Nigeria, 1918 – Timothy Oluseyi Odeyale
36. Urban landscape transformations and the malaria control scheme in Mauritius, 1948–51 – Nicole de Lalouvière
Epilogue: Post-COVID urbanism and architecture – Richard J. Jackson
Glossary
Bibliography
Authors’ biographies
Index
About the Author :
Mohammad Gharipour is professor and director of the Architecture Graduate Program at the School of Architecture and Planning at Morgan State University in Baltimore, USA.
Caitlin DeClercq is an assistant director at Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Along with Mohammad Gharipour, she is the co-founder of the Epidemic Urbanism Initiative.
Review :
'This is a brilliantly conceived, ground breaking collection that provides deep insight into the challenges that COVID poses to our world today. By focusing on the physical environment, these studies of past pandemics demonstrate how critical it is to tend to both neglected infrastructure and vulnerable communities. Epidemic Urbanism is an inspiring example of interdisciplinary collaboration across diverse times and places and the contributions it brings to the work of global public health.'
Nancy Tomes, Distinguished Professor, Stony Brook University, USA
“Epidemic Urbanism recounts the fascinating history of cities and plagues to shed light on present and future challenges. For hundreds of years, cities have played a central role in the spread, inequality, and containment of epidemics and pandemics. Why would COVID-19 be any different? Public health strategy is most effective when based on data, aligned with communities, and informed by the triumphs and failures of the past. This book is essential reading for the work of preparing for our next great infectious disease challenge.”
Joshua M. Sharfstein, Professor and Vice Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA
“As sports stadia and conference centres have transformed themselves into impromptu healthcare facilities and makeshift morgues, Epidemic Urbanism could not be timelier. Ranging from Agra in the 1610s to Sao Paulo in the 1970s, its studies of particular, historical outbreaks add up to a global account of how disease has affected cities and cities have affected disease. Drawing from specialists across a range of disciplines, Gharipour and DeClercq’s urgent collection draws from the past to point the way to the future. As Governments exhort and promise to ‘Build Back Better’, Epidemic Urbanism tellingly reminds us how such policies need to be informed by historical understanding and based around shared equity.”
Ross MacFarlane, Research Development Specialist, The Wellcome Collection, UK
“The dynamic interplay of contagious illness and the built environment is a long and global story,
highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Epidemic Urbanism is an epic collection amplifying this theme, beautifully conceived and organized in a clear, orderly format (context-case study-conclusion). Its main intention is to inspire action, anticipating future historical studies and pandemics. Instructive examples take us around the world to see how illnesses have been managed and mis-managed by city dwellers.”
Annmarie Adams, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Canada
